Access ports provide a convenient method to repeatedly deliver a substance to remote areas of the body without utilizing surgical procedures. Ports are totally implantable within the body (i.e. subcutaneously) and may permit the infusion of medicine, parenteral solutions, blood products, or other fluids. Additionally, ports may also be used for blood sampling.
A typical port typically includes a housing assembly, a septum, and an outlet. The housing assembly and septum define a reservoir which is accessible through the septum. The outlet of the housing may communicate with a catheter which accesses a vein. Thus, the catheter may be employed for delivering a fluid from the port to a remote location in the body, for example, the superior vena cava.
In common practice, a port is implanted within the body and the catheter is routed to a remote area where a fluid is desired to be delivered. To deliver the fluid, a caregiver locates the septum of the port by palpation of a patient's skin. Port access is accomplished by percutaneously inserting a needle, typically a non-coring needle, through the septum of the port and into the reservoir. A fluid, such as a drug or other beneficial substance, may then be administered by bolus injection or continuous infusion into the reservoir. Thus, the fluid may flow through the reservoir into the catheter and finally to the site were the fluid is desired.
Ports generally come in two different types, surgical and cosmetic. Surgical ports may typically be used for delivering medicinal substances, including chemotherapy drugs which may be harmful to surrounding tissue, or for sampling blood. Cosmetic ports, on the other hand, are utilized to deliver saline or some other non-reactive substance to a prosthesis which supplements a body feature.
Generally, conventional access ports of different manufacturers or models may typically exhibit substantially similar geometries that may not be differentiable with respect to one another. Accordingly, once an access port is implanted, it may be difficult to determine the model, style, or design of the access port. Such uncertainty may be undesirable, at least for replacement timing purposes, among other reasons, especially if identification of the implanted access port is difficult to otherwise determine.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide an access port which provides at least one identifiable characteristic that may be sensed or otherwise determined subsequent to subcutaneous implantation of the access port.